Future Tormentor

10

Leo stood before Jeff, realization dawning upon him. "Even I, in my naivety, should have realized by now. I am not the only one who can travel back in time. You're the murderer; you killed all these people!"

Jeff had remained elusive from the law by exploiting this time anomaly, allowing his future self to commit these crimes in the past.

Just like the night Mia died... Jeff was ostensibly with him, providing an alibi at the police station for the entire night.

In a heated struggle, Jeff found an opening and choked Leo from behind, pinning him to the ground with a menacing intensity, his face contorted with effort and bloodied, veins bulging on his clenched jaw and temples. "It's not that I want to kill you," Jeff confesses, his voice a mixture of confusion and resignation, "it's the future me who's out to get you. I couldn't wrap my head around it until you mentioned you already knew how to catch the criminal. Ironically, I've stopped myself from taking you down several times. Leo, why couldn't you just mind your own business? I never wanted to kill you... I had to do it; they all deserved it for pointing fingers at me, calling me weak. I broke their fingers so they could never point at me again. And those women, who thought they were too good for me, why should they look down on me? Leo, you were the first one who stood up for me, the only one who didn't see me as a fool. I didn't want to hurt you; I gave you a chance..."

That night, Leo had witnessed a murder, clearly committed by someone close to him, possibly even a future version of Jeff himself. Leo's uncertainty about recognizing the assailant's face had unsettled Jeff.

"I thought accompanying you to the police station would allay your suspicions, but you insisted on reporting the crime."

The police dismissed it as Leo's imagination, but he remained stubbornly convinced of what he had seen.

"They said your girlfriend had already broken up with you; I figured you wouldn't be too heartbroken if something happened to her."

So, after parting ways with Leo on the 26th, Jeff went back to the night of the 25th and murdered Mia, leaving a cryptic message for Leo's mother, thinking it would silence Leo.

"I was worried when I heard about your accident; I even visited you in the hospital. But when I heard you refused to see anyone, I had no choice. I feared you might have said something over the phone to your mother that day, something you shouldn't have. Only the dead keep secrets."

Jeff's expression was one of pained resignation. "I thought you'd learned your lesson and would keep quiet. But then you had to tell me you could catch the killer, so confident in your belief."

He intended to go back to the morning of the 26th, the day of Leo's accident, and ensure his death. But to his shock, Leo also possessed a device capable of stopping time, attempting to warn his past self to avoid the fatal path.

"Do you know why we both have these devices, capable of changing our fates? We're alike, Leo. People say we're crazy, but how did we get this way? We were forced into it. Everyone looks down on me, and you're no better off. Your girl left you, and you've watched everyone you care about die. It's our destiny to suffer, and only we deserve a chance to change it. But now, I can't leave you be; you're too dangerous. Forgive me, Leo..."

As Jeff searched frantically for the device on Leo, his guard momentarily dropped. Seizing the chance, Leo elbowed Jeff, causing him to stagger back. In the ensuing chaos, Leo tackled Jeff to the ground, struggling for control of the knife.

In a desperate moment, as the knife edged closer to Jeff's throat, he seemed to remember something vital, reaching for the old, battered phone in his pocket...

The eerie sound of electricity crackled again, and Leo, realizing Jeff's intent, reached out to grab the device. It was strikingly similar to his own, down to the cracked screen, the only difference being Jeff's looked older and more worn.

With a grim smile, Jeff seemed to mock Leo's efforts as they wrestled for the knife, which suddenly plunged downward, but just as it was about to strike, Jeff vanished from sight once more...